Hi! I’m April. Photographer, painter, pinterest fiend, plant rescuer, and cacti killer. My goal is to help make the world a more beautiful place by offering paintings, prints, and canvas art that make hearts happy. Learn more.

I have a small confession-- I like working retail. To be fair, my part time job is at a scrapbooking store--Craft Fancy in Arlington Heights, IL. If you had asked me a decade or so ago when I worked at the department stores in the mall, I would have vehemently denied liking retail. It's so much different now that I get to help people be creative and not clean up fitting rooms after them...

Did you know that I teach a digital photography class at Craft Fancy? No? Well, now you do! In fact, I'm teaching a Digital Photography Field Trip class this Saturday (August 28th). It's going to be fabulous! It combines my Digital Photography 101 class with practical application. The auto settings as well as basic picture composition will be covered. This is perfect for those of us who learn better actually doing rather than just being talked to. This month, we're going to the Chicago Botanic Garden. For details, please check out this link:

Speaking of photography, this weekend was a good weekend for photo ops!!! Saturday I went, quite spontaneously, to New Glarus, WI. It's only a two hour drive-- not too bad at all! (And yes, I used my new GPS!!! I love it! )

America's "Little Switzerland" New Glarus is located in the heart of Green County in Southern Wisconsin. Its rolling hills dotted with small towns, farms, and woodland pastures are much like the alpine farmlands of Glarus, Switzerland. When you arrive at the village entrance, you will quickly understand its popularity as a destination. New Glarus is America's "Little Switzerland."

It was a cute little town. Unfortunately, I got there a little late-- most of the town was closed with the exception of bars and restaurants. I did manage to get a few cool shots though...

Sunday was a little more low-key. I went to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to photograph the butterflies. Seriously, it was super cool. Way better than the butterfly garden I went to a few weeks ago. There were so many varieties of butterflies and moths--And TONS of them! Here's an excerpt from their website:

Get up close to more than 75 species of exotic butterflies and stunning bird species from the Southern hemisphere in a 2,700 square-foot greenhouse filled with pools of water, flowers, tropical trees and 1,000 butterflies, including those never-before-seen in our region.

The release new butterflies daily at 2:00 p.m. How cool is that?I also checked out the Sanctuary: Flight of the Majestic Monarch exhibit. Way cool. Did you know Monarch Butterflies will migrate through Chicago to Mexico coming up in September? Neither did I! The Majestic Monarch exhibit features facts, amazing murals from Hector Duarte and kids art from local schools.